Food prices fall as consumers shop smarter

Friday, August 15, 2014 - 10:48 by Sarah Collinson

The latest statistics from the supermarket industry suggest that consumers are using their heads when they shop, forcing big chains to push prices down to accommodate their bargain-hunting ways, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

Over the course of July, the average cost of a typical food shopping session was down by 1.9 per cent compared to the same period of 2013. And this drop in price is cited as being the biggest decline seen in over half a decade, based on figures from the British Retail Consortium.

Although the UK has begun to recover from the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, there are still millions of households that are being affected by frozen or reduced wages, which has allowed the cost of living to increase at a rate that has forced people to make tough shopping decisions.

Thankfully, the fact that people can use safe shopping online to compare the price of a vast range of products, as well as having the opportunity to shop with budget retailers rather than mainstream supermarkets, is helping to combat this disparity and encourage companies to be even more competitive with their pricing.

Even non-food items are less expensive today than they were a year ago, with the BCR survey revealing that clothing and footwear were both an average of 11.2 per cent cheaper in July of 2014. Meanwhile, big ticket items like TVs and tablet computers had been reduced in price by around five per cent, with the popularity of safe shopping online ensuring that both online and high street retailers are on their toes when it comes to making reductions.

Consumers have been empowered by the internet, with e-commerce sites making it easier to deal with economic fluctuations and other factors of influence.